Dragon Wings On Hiatus
by she-wolf vixen
Summary: On HIATUS
1. Scroll One Wings of Fear

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_**As you enter this story you see a girl in a kimono who is kneeling on the floor upon a tatami mat. She says...**_

**"Hello. Kiyumi here. It's been a while since I had a long Zutara story (Coconuts, Sand and Love) and it was for the reason of not having anything to write. Please help to support me and I thank you all for giving me a chance and clicking on this story's title. Please sit down, have a cup of tea, and enjoy the story."**

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Dragon Wings** by She-wolf Vixen.

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_If there was a way to bring someone back from the dead, would you try? _

_If you wer forced to relive the past, would you cry?_

_If there was another choice you could see, would you wander down that path?_

_If you love someone, would you sell your life to the devil's hollow wrath?_

Katara was a strong heady girl of fifteen years and could be recognized for her prestigious skills as a master waterbender and teacher to the elusive avatar. One would wonder why a girl with such powers over water wore the traditional garments of the nation of flame, who for the past years had been overriding all the other areas of the world on their quest for world domination. However, as she headed into a large building which resided in an abandoned structure known as the airtemples, the people who came out to meet her were no different. One, was a tall boy who looked to be about sixteen and had a short brush of hair tied back on his head, another, a young girl who stared ahead with glazed eyes but smiled with the confidence of a strong will, and then a similarly aged boy who bore tattoos on his skin like the mark of the gods. He was the avatar, the last and only airbender who had survived the assault of the fire nation by encasing himself in an cage of ice for a hundred years. He was not only the best friend of Katara, he was also the one deemed to finally end the century-long war and establish peace among all four nations.

Recently, there was a new addition to the the avatar and his allies. Katara was the only one who Zuko had not gained the trust of and for good reason. Katara had already been betrayed once by the hot-headed teen and she wasn't prepared to redo her mistake soon. The fact that she had come so close to using the Oasis Water on Zuko's scar instead of saving Aang's life scared her. True, she had felt some connection between herself and the fire-nation prince in the crystal prison once before but there was no misunderstanding now. She didn't trust him nor would she ever will. Her mind was set and just let that excuse of a prince try and change her. No doubt he would feel the full fury of a woman's wrath if ever he dare provoke her. Many mornings, she had woken to watch Aang and Zuko's training sessions which was where she was headed at the moment. The two most likely had just arrived at their usual spot and were preparing to start another session. Hiding neatly in a ledge above the chosen practice arena of the boys, she could efficiently keep an eye and hand ready over her water pouch to insure that she could get down fast enough to protect Aang if ever Zuko tried to harm him. Over time, she grew accustomed to observing the lessons of the twelve-year-old who had been both her and Toph's pupil. Zuko never attempted to attack Aang and she slowly stopped flinching every time Zuko's flames came to close to the airbender.

She also began to notice changes around the fire nation prince. Gone was the overall wildness of his bending.While the young avatar's efforts to produce a flame were somewhat forced, Zuko's bending seemed to flow from his limbs smoothly. In a way, his bending appeared to take on a waterbending form. She had finally understood this one day after her own personal routine on their water supply. She realized that the same waterwhip that she shaped her element into was the very one that the fire prince used on a daily basis. She assured this by watching his moves as he taught Aang a certain rotation. It was the same. Katara wondered if he had stolen this style from their fight in the caves. He might have, seeing as he had stolen many things from her before, those things ranging from her mother's bethrothal necklace to her own friend who was currently learning firebending from the thief himself. Katara gently slapped her palms onto her cheeks. Why? Why did her mind always travel to Zuko these days? Eventually, she decided to clear her head by working her bending. Wait. Maybe she could claim some of the debt that Zuko owed her. After all, since he had taken some things from her, he should repay her in full... with interest.

Her first whim was to return her gaze to the two firebending boys beneath her hiding spot. She watched carefully as Zuko explained the breathing process of his style to the boy and proceeded to demonstrate. Zuko brought his left leg far out in front of his right and in a swift and quick movement, shifted his hand up, thrust it out, and exhaled. Katara watched the flame shoot out and linger before dying out again. Smirking, she drew herself up and reached for the hide pouch beneath the fold of her clothes. Fluidly beckoning out the water, she copied the movements of the scarred teen and shot out her hand. Katara gasped as the water exploded and drenched her and the surrounding landscape. She wasn't sure if that was supposed to happen or if Zuko's form would even work on her element but she decided to try once more. She gathered up the remains of her water and easily dryed her clothes. Again, she lifted a delicate foot and shot out her arm but this time, she remembered to inhale...exhale. The effect was immediate. The water exploded once more but differently. The water turned into glistening shards of various sizes and they burst out in a stream in all directions. Then they turned icy and drove maliciously into the walls around her. Katara stood stunned, frozen in her stance. Fantastic. Katara felt elated. If this was the result of cross-bending, imagine what she could invent from all the other styles of bending. Briskly melting the ice around her, she prepared her stance once more. Still, the whole time she was practicing, her mind refused to wipe itself clean off all thoughts. Zuko continued to linger within her mind persistently.

By the time Zuko and Aang had returned to their campsite, Katara had sneaked back using the paths she had discovered over time. She had easily slipped back using a much faster route than the boys and she had returned fairly quickly. She was slightly satisfied, therefore, to see Zuko looking more tired and exhausted than the energetic bouncing avatar.

"Hey Katara, Toph, look what I learned to do!" Aang called out cheerfully and he ran up to the girls.

The boy stood, legs spread apart and his hands facing down, fingertips just touching. Katara watched as he took a deep breath and then, like a snake, shot out in perfect timing. Gold light filled Katara's blue eyes and she blinked against the brightness. The flames stimulated her memory, bringing her back to the time when Aang had been learning from Jeong Jeong, his first firebending teacher. She could almost feel the sting of the burns on her hands. She also remembered the cooling feel of the water on her inflamed skin as she first discovered healing powers. It had been like a soothing touch from her mother like when she was little. As a young child, Katara would often play in dangerous places, resulting in numerous cuts and bruises. Everytime, her mother was there to slowly caress her skin and hug her tightly untill the pain went away. With a jolt, Katara remembered. Her mother was a waterbender. She was Katara's soul. The one who had given her life and was prepared to give her own life for Katara. Then she had been taken away by the fire nation raid. They had stolen a piece of Katara's heart when they killed her mother. All her life, there was one thought that ran through her mind constantly, wherever she went. Fire hurts, water heals.

"...'Tara...Katara?"

Aang voice resounded through her head, bringing her back from her inner mind. She was daydreaming too much now-a-days. Katara gave a forced smile and tried to speak without crying.

"That's...that's wonderful Aang. You're learning so quickly."

One look at the avatar's face and Katara knew he had guessed that something was wrong. Aang's smiling face grew sober and he took her hands in his and stared at her palms.

"You...remember don't you?" he whispered quietly. "When I burned your hands..."

"Aang. It's fine. If you remember correctly, by burning me, you gave me the chance to learn healing properties of waterbending on my own. Now my healing skills are even better than if I had learned it from Pakku up north."

Aang, after looking at her for a few seconds, he nodded and began to grin again. He let her hands fall from his boyish ones and turned to talk to the blind earth bender who had felt the heat on her face and had started berating Aang for firebending to close to her.

Up until now, Zuko had remained quiet and awkward off to one side as he always had since joining up with the group of people he once had chased after. Sokka was currently missing at the moment and Toph gave out loudly that he had gone out to see if Appa was doing well. Aang, who was still conversing with Toph gave Katara a meaningful glance with a flicker of his gray eyes.

Biting her lip in frustration, Katara stepped uncertainly toward the lone teen watching the horizon. It irked her to have to try and coax him furthur into the group and it annoyed her all the more that it was she doing the job. She _had_ been trying to avoid him apart from the occasional insulting comment she threw at him to which he responded with a embarassed countenence and refusal to meet her gaze. Everytime he saw her, Zuko's mind must have been forced back to when he had chosen honor over a loss of pride, causing Aang to have a near death situation. Katara realized her feet were moving her closer and closer and her heart beat in her chest violently. If she hated him so much, why did she ever trust him in the first place? She had every right to be angry with him but somehow, seeing those large amber eyes tinted with a soft light chipped away at her earlier fury. Before she knew it, she was in front of him and he had turned to face her, but was still too ashamed to look at her straight.

"Hey." Katara crossed her arms.

Zuko nodded, "Er...hi."

"Nice sunrise huh?" Katara gestured awkwardly with a hand towards the watercolor growing in the sky. She almost laughed. Here she was talking to him about the weather when she usually felt like insulting him.

Zuko shifted himself so he could see outside clearly. "Yeah. Maybe it's just me, but I think it's nice."

Katara was suprised. The Zuko she knew before would spit scorn at the sunrise. She began to feel rather calm.

"Well, it makes you feel warm doesn't it, like a campfire?" she asked.

Zuko shrugged annd replied. "I was telling Aang the same thing this morning. Fire isn't always a bad thing. Used in the right amounts at the right time can save you from freezing to death. It also enables you to cook food to eat in order to survive. But, I'll admit, fire can harm. It can burn human skin and when out of control, it can destroy cities and towns. Parts of fire are beneficial and others are painful. My nation is like that. Most of the peasants and even the fire nation army are not exactly willing to harm other people. They follow the orders of the royal family, the Fire Lord...and you know yourself what my sister is like."

Katara smirked, "She's got pure evil traits. Even worse than you."

Katara watched Zuko give a small smile.

"She doesn't have evil in her..."

Katara blinked in momentary suprise.

Zuko continued, "..she _is_ evil"

Katara's jaw dropped and she started to laugh, "Wh-wha?" She never remembered Zuko ever making a joke in his life. Laughing she took a hold of the collar of his shirt and tugged. Thinking she had heard a light 'clink' noise as his shirt pulled taut, she paused but she dismissed it. That wasn't important. She also noticed he was only a few more inches taller than her. "Why don't you come sit by us?"

It was Zuko's turn to look astonished. "Me?"

Katara let go of his tunic. "Sure..I mean...why not?"

Zuko was about to point out that she didn't seem to like him very much but abandoned the thought. He followed the waterbender as she walked back to where Toph was now attempting to spar with a reluctant and exhausted Aang.

"Hey!" Zuko called indignantly to Toph, "Stop that! He's learning from me right now."

Toph struck a defiant pose, "If Aang's ever gonna amount to anything, he's gotta learn to transition between elements like that!" The blind earthbender snapped her fingers at the same time she ground her foot into the stone beneath her and a jagged rock found it's way to the surface. "Now either agree with me or prepare yourself for earth missles coming at your head."

"No...way." Zuko smirked and he brought up his hands.

For a moment, Katara thought that he was going to firebend and she opened her mouth to stop him but before she could say anything, Zuko made a wise choice. He drew two broadswords from behind him. Katara smiled at her foolishness it not recognizing it earlier. That was the metal-on-metal sound she had heard before. As Zuko cleaved through rock after rock, Katar hitched up her sleeves and pulled out her hide pouch.

"My turn..." Katara laughed loudly.

Toph neatly slipped aside giving Katara full access and the waterbending prodigy stepped into the spotlight. Using her brain, Katara attacked with a well-known move. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aang grin as he recognized it. With a small flick of her hand, Katara sent one of Zuko's blades flying out of his hands and clattering to the ground. Katara began to send out whip after whip of water and Zukop dodges these frantically, slicing each one as he had with the rocks. Katara persisted with her continuous barrage and eventually, as she had hoped, Zuko made a mistake. The only weapon he held sailed into the air and fell with a metalic clang over in the opposite direction of it's twin. Zuko moved to pick up the nearest of his twin swords but Katara launched herself foward. There was a hush as Katara pinned Zuko's hands with her own and slammed his body back onto the floor. She knelt above him, her lips tinted with a smile.

"I win." Katara laughed.

Zuko lay stunned as Katara heaved herself into a standing position and brushed herself off. In a much better mood, she knelt and held out a hand to the boy spread motionless on the stone, his black hair mussed around wildly and tinted with sweat. She had just helped Zuko back up when a loud voice rang across Toph and Aang's laughter. Sokka was back.

The tall water tribe boy came running in wearing a look of panic. In his hands he held a messenger hawk.

"We're in deep trouble, " Sokka gasped out to the shocked company, "Hawkie came back with a message...not from Toph's parents but from my dad! Fire Lord Ozai has been killed!"

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**_The kimono-clad girl bows and rolls up the scroll she has been reading from. She says;_**

**"Thank you for listening so far. I am so glad you have had the patience to come along on this story for so long. The second scroll will be coming soon but it's a lot of work so please be patient! Since you have the time, would you sign our review book?"**

**NOTE: Remember to put this on your alert list if you want to read the rest of the story. Thanks so much for reading!**


	2. Scroll Two Borne from Flame

_You return to the candle-lit room after a refreshing cup of milken tea. The kimono-clad girl bows low, her deep brown hair touching the wooden tatami mat she is knelt upon. _

_"Welcome back." she says softly, "the second scroll has been prepared. Thank you for your patience."_

_Holding the vinyl in her slim hands she begins to read. _

**Dragon Wings, Scroll Two; Borne from Flame**

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_Even if the pride you hold over your head is a mistake  
Even if the ideal you paint crumbles  
Even if everything you know turns to lies and wears you down  
Even if we push our way through the distorted winds  
Even if we outdistance the cold sky  
Even then, we still continue to wander_

Zuko stood rigid, sure that his heart had clenched and stopped for just a moment. He saw, out of the corner of his eye, the waterbender flick her blue eyes at him. He frowned. Did she pity him? Was she watching to see whether he would show any remorse? All his senses seemed to be awake. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears and he could feel the pulse of his core echoing through his head. He could feel every breath being squeezed from his lungs in vain effort to escape.

"Zuko?"

The teen prince blinked as he heard the young airbender call his name. The naive young boy touched him lightly on one arm and gave what Aang must have thought was a sad but reassuring smile. To Zuko, it did not help to make him feel any better.

"So my father's...dead then." Zuko blinked as he caught Toph's dead stare.

Zuko was ready to punch something when Sokka, who usually belittled Zuko as much as he could, hung his head and gave Zuko a look so full of pity that it made Zuko's blood boil. Gritting his teeth, Zuko launched forward and ran. He couldn't take much more of this. Ignoring the ache in his side, he pressed onward through the stone foundations of the air temples. He could hear the distressed calls of Aang behind him but he clenched a fist and pushed his legs forward.

As he ran, he was completely unaware of where his body was taking him. He let his feet do all the work. His stomach continued to worsen in its snake-like twisting and he gagged. Running blindly, he heard in the back of his mind, a small clanging noise. Not stopping to think about it, Zuko listened to the rasping breaths he took and moved his feet in the same rhythm. He took a second to look up at the passing horizon to see that the sun had passed over its full height. That was a mistake. Snagging his foot on a jutting rock, he tripped and with a yell, fell over the side of the platform.

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"You idiot."

Zuko peered through the slits of his eyelids to drowsily look up at the ceiling of limestone and once more, those electrifying blue eyes. He jolted upright and scanned around him. The water tribe girl, knelt upon her knees, turned her head to switch her gaze from the orange horizon to him.

"Did I...fall?" he mumbled.

"Yes...well..." Katara replied.

Zuko took in Katara's face. Is she worried about me?

"Everyone feels bad about your father's death." Katara spoke pensively.

"You too?" Zuko asked with a hint of exasperation in his voice.

Zuko was surprised when he heard her reply a "no" with a completely emotionless tone. He smiled when he remembered their first meeting. It was more of a kidnapping for ransom than anything. She was young then and was not as powerful a bender as she was now. He recalled her girlish whimper as he trapped her slim wrists with his powerful hands and her child-like defiance to protect her friend even with her precious keepsake dangling in front of her eyes. ' She's really matured a lot since.' Zuko laughed in his mind, 'including the ways that count.' He eyed her and grinned.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" Katara leaned back and fell onto her bottom, hands flat on the ground behind her back for support.

Zuko shook his head, "N-no reason, getting back to earlier, thanks fo saving me" It was Katara's turn to shake her head.

"I didn't do it, a dragon saved you."

Zuko laughed, "Ok, I get it. Enough sarcasm. You're starting to sound like your brother."

Katara raised an eyebrow at him, "No, really. It was a dragon."

The scarred teen stared at her for a moment's pause before starting to laugh.

"Oh, forget it!" Katara smacked a hand on the ground and pushed herself up to a standing position. "I don't even know why I bother!" The furious waterbender turned to leave and in an instant, she was knocked over onto the ground and red welled up from her arm. She lay stunned on the floor, not knowing what hit her and how it had.

"What?!" Zuko's eyes flashed and he stood and fumbled for his broadswords. He hadn't even seen or heard the attacker coming.

Katara groaned and gritted her teeth against the pain. She hadn't even felt the cut yet it ran from just above her elbow to midway to her lower arm and pulsed with pain now. Shaking her wounded limb, crimson droplets staining the stone floor, she brought her hands up to bend.

Zuko cursed when he found his sheaths empty. Quickly, her whirled around to look for the assailant and narrowly missed a gleaming talon. With a look of shock on his face, he looked up into the air. A ripple of fear ran through his chest.

The demon was a huge beast. Malicious and evil-looking, plucked from the deep nightmares of a young child. Its head was crowned with a series of spikes and its fangs hung over its jaw, waiting to rip. It's long skinny arms hung by the demon's side, claws extended like needles, every one sharp and vicious. The thing's leathery skin was a deep black and it hovered in midair flapping huge bat-like wings that enabled silence in an attack but drove it on like a huge torpedo. One claw was red at the edge with Katara's blood.

Katara raised her hands and brought her weapon out from the hidden water pouch. The liquid flowing out in a flowing movement, she tensed her muscles, letting the power build up and course through her in ripples of energy. She grinned as she felt the anticipation of attack but without warning, she was knocked over again and she fell to the stone, her chi circle broken and she felt her cheek swelling up like it was on fire.

"Zuko, what are you doing, run!

She craned her neck up from the floor to try and see what was going on around her. Zuko had turned to her. "What?!" he shouted above the drum of the demon's wings, " and leave you here to die?!"

Katara heaved herself up with her good arm, "Why that idiot..." she muttered to herself. She could feel her water soaking into her clothes and when she stood up, the liquid pooled at her feet. "Alright then," Katara gritted her teeth. "let's see if my training has paid off..."

Running as steadily as she could towards the menace hovering above Zuko, she dried herself and began to build up her chi again. "Zuko, get behind me, now!" The scarred boy was holding off the demon with his swift fire-laden punches, which the beast easily avoided with an almost laughing smile on its face. "Zuko!" Katara yelled again.

"Are you crazy? You're going to get killed, just get away." he replied without halting his barrage of flames.

"ZUKO, GET BEHIND ME RIGHT NOW, OR I SWEAR BY THE MOON, I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU!"

This seemed to have some of an effect on him and Zuko scrambled out of the way to fall directly behind Katara's slim form. Katara herself, ignoring the wrenching pain in her arm, lifted both her hands, stepped forward,

breathed...

and the demon fell into empty space, its laughing grin frozen and eyes fading to a cloudy white, impaled with a thousand icy shards. The demon bounced once against the stone wall before disappearing into the abyss below.

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Aang was reminiscing about the recent attack on the fire nation when Zuko came in with Katara, who had stubbornly refused Zuko's invitation to carry her. Though why she needed to be carried was a mystery to her.

The avatar jumped to his feet in a bounce of air and his hands came up defensively at the sight of the two battle-worn teens, his gray eyes casting the area for the enemy. Sokka and Toph turned at the sound of the two bender's return. Neither of them said a word.

Katara frowned at her useless arm angrily. Shoot. She hadn't had time to wipe the blood off nor could she waterbend. That last move of her's must have harmed a muscle somewhere in her forearm. She waved her good arm casually at Aang.

"It's ok Aang, we took care of the attacker."

"Attacker...who was it, Azula?" Aang gave her a panicked look.

Zuko, feeling out of place, decided to explain.

"First of all, Azula wouldn't come after us on her own..."

"Though that huge ugly thing could be her in disguise. It sure looks like her." Katara interrupted.

Zuko smirked, "Well, it wasn't and if it was...well good riddance."

Aang stared in confusion at the two of them and tilted his head, "What?"

Zuko stuck a thumb up and jabbed it in Katara's direction, "She, I don't know how, killed the thing."

As the fiery teen explained the situation, Katara glanced down again at her arm. She patiently waited until Zuko finished story-telling before she rose attention to her arm.

Sokka's reaction was brotherly in a strange twisted way.

In any case, it was an eventful day, and Katara's mind was still on the gargantuan creature that had given her the injury even as she prepared for a night's rest.

Zuko went to sleep with his recovered broadswords in his fists.

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_Kimono-girl looks different somehow. You try to be polite and ignore that fact._

_She notices your look and laughs. "I haven't had time to put my geisha cosmetics on today. I apologize."_

_You smile back and laugh as well and she turns for the next scroll by her knee._

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**_Wow. Thank you dear readers for all the patience you give me. I'm not a fast updater, I'm sorry. I try to get chapters up as soon as I can. _**

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